| History | |
|---|---|
 British India | |
| Name | Ardaseer |
| Namesake | Ardaseer Dady [1] |
| Owner | Cerssetjee Cowasjee [1] |
| Builder | Bombay Dockyard [2] |
| Launched | 30 June 1836 [1] |
| Fate | Burnt 4 April 1851 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 422 (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 29 ft 6 in (9.0 m) |
| Sail plan | Barque |
Ardaseer was an opium clipper built at Bombay Dockyard in 1836. A fire on 4 April 1851 destroyed her as she was on a voyage from China to Calcutta via Singapore.
Ardaseer carried Malwah and other opium from India to China, and more generally was in the China trade between Calcutta and China. [3]
Ardaseer, Macintyre, master, had been sailing from Bombay to China when she put into Sourabaya on 9 January 1841. She had encountered a gale near the Caramata Passage that had taken away her topmast, foremast, sails, yards, etc. [4] Her hull and cargo were not damaged and after repairs she completed her voyage. [5]
On her second voyage in 1841 Ardaseer was again dismasted. She left Singapore on 2 November. On 16 November she encountered a typhoon and to save her Macintyre had the crew cut away her masts. When the gale subsided he tried to make for Manila under jury-masts, but was unable to do so. Ardaseer returned to Singapore on 9 December. [6]
Ardaseer weathered another typhoon on 15 September 1849, this time without damage. [7]
Ardaseer, Henry Lovett, master, was on her way from China to Calcutta via Singapore on 4 April 1851 when she caught fire 100 nautical miles (190 km) off Penang. Unable to defeat the fire, her crew and passengers took to the boats and the next day the Bremen ship Liebnitz rescued them. [8] Ardaseer had been carrying specie and this was put on her boats; the crew and passengers lost all their possessions. Leibnitz landed the people it had rescued at Penang on the 12th. Lovett believed the fire was the result of spontaneous combustion as the fire had started aft where the flammable cargo had been stored. [9]
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia FRS was an Indian Parsi shipbuilder and engineer belonging to the Wadia ship building family.
Sylph was a clipper ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1831 for the Parsi merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong-based merchant house Jardine Matheson, in 1833 Sylph set a speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport opium between various ports in the Far East. She disappeared en route to Singapore in 1849.
Hastings was a brig that the Bombay Dockyard launched in 1785 or 1787 for the Bengal Pilot Service. In 1818, the EIC sold her to local buyers. Alternatively, in May 1818 she was converted to a buoy vessel; in 1819 she appeared as a buoy vessel on a list of pilot vessels at Calcutta with J.F. Twisden, master. She was sold on 11 October 1820. A fire destroyed her on the night of 17 April 1823, while she was at Pulau Pasang, off Padang.
Several ships have been named Sylph, for the Sylph, a mythological creature in western tradition.
Porcher was launched in 1799 at Calcutta. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) from Bengal to England. A French privateer captured her in 1802, which gave rise to a case in French courts about the validity of the capture given the impending Treaty of Amiens. The French courts condemned her in prize and new owners in Bordeaux named her Ville de Bordeaux. The British recaptured her in 1804. Thereafter she traded between England and India as a licensed ship. In 1809 she sailed to England where in 1810 new owners renamed her Cambridge. As Cambridge she made three voyages for the EIC as an extra ship. In 1818 she was again sold with her new owners continuing to sail her to the Far East as a licensed ship. She then made two more voyages to India for the EIC. In 1840 she was sold to an American trading house at Canton, and then to the Qing Dynasty, which purchased her for the Imperial Chinese Navy. The British Royal Navy destroyed her on 27 February 1841 during the Battle of First Bar at the onset of the First Opium War.
Royal Charlotte was launched by Bombay Dockyard in 1774 as a country ship. She made one voyage for the British East India Company in 1796 when she sailed from Calcutta to Britain. There she took on British registry. She sailed back to Calcutta where a lightning bolt ignited her magazine, destroying her in 1797.
Nonsuch was launched at Calcutta in 1781 as the first large vessel built there. She was designed to serve as either a merchantman or a man-of-war. She spent the first 12 years of her career as a merchant vessel, carrying opium to China amongst other cargoes. After the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 her owner frequently hired her out as an armed ship to the British East India Company (EIC). She participated in an engagement with a French naval squadron and recaptured an East Indiaman. She also made two voyages for the EIC. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802 the EIC paid her off; as she was being hauled into a dockyard for repairs she was damaged and the decision was taken to break her up.
Charlotte was built at the Bombay Dockyard in 1803. She spent most of her career as a country ship, trading between India and China, though she did sail between India and the United Kingdom on occasion, and under a licence from the British East India Company (EIC). The French captured her in 1804 but she returned to British hands. She was wrecked in 1851.
Syren was a snow that the Bombay Dockyard built in 1770 for the EIC. The EIC used her as a packet ship. She made two voyages to England for the EIC before it sold her in 1778.
Boyne was launched at Calcutta in 1807. In 1809 she sailed to England. She was sold to the Danes, but by 1811 was under English ownership under the name Moffat. She then made seven voyages as a "regular ship" for the British East India Company (EIC). After the EIC exited its maritime activities in 1833–34, Moffat made four voyages transporting convicts to Australia: one voyage to Port Jackson and three to Van Diemen's Land. She also made at least one voyage carrying immigrants to South Australia, and later regularly traded between Liverpool and Bombay. She was last listed in 1856.
Golconda was launched at Calcutta in 1815. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) from India to England in 1819. She spent the bulk of her career as a country ship, trading in the East Indies until she wrecked in September 1840 while carrying troops to Canton.
Several ships have been named Ardaseer, or a variant of that name, possibly for the Persian king Ardashir I, or in the 19th century for Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia.
Shah Ardaseer was built at Bombay, probably in 1786. English transliterations of her name show her as Shah or Shaw + Adaseer, or Ardaseer, or Ardasier, or Adasier, or Ardasheer, or Ardeseer, or Ardesir. A fire on 13 September 1809 at Bombay burnt her. She then may have been recovered, repaired, and enlarged to become the hulk HMS Arrogant, which was moved to Trincomalee in 1822 and sold there in 1842.
The H[onourable] C[ompany's] S[hip] Hugh Lindsay was a paddle steamer built in Bombay in 1829 for the naval arm of the British East India Company (EIC) and the first steamship to be built in Bombay. She pioneered the mail route between Suez and Bombay. Hugh Lindsay was lost in the Persian Gulf on 18 August 1865.
Surat Castle was launched at Surat in 1788 as a country ship, that is, a vessel that traded around and from India, staying east of the Cape of Good Hope. She originally was intended for the cotton trade with China. From 1796 to 1817 she made nine voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She then made one more voyage under a license from the EIC. She made one more voyage to India, this time under a licence from the EIC and then disappeared from easily accessible online sources after her sale in 1819.
Thomas Grenville was an East Indiaman launched at the Bombay Dockyard for the British East India Company (EIC), and one of only a handful of East Indiamen that it actually owned. She made 14 voyages for the EIC. It sold her in 1834 when it gave up its maritime activities. She was sold for a free trader and burnt in Bombay in June 1843 in a suspicious fire.
David Scott was launched at Bombay in 1801. She was a "country ship", i.e., she generally traded east of the Cape of Good Hope. Between 1802 and 1816 she made five voyages between India and the United Kingdom as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC). Thereafter she traded between Britain and India under a license from the EIC. A fire destroyed her at Mauritius on 12 June 1841.
Lord Lyndoch was launched in 1814 at Calcutta. After she sailed to England she made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). Between 1831 and 1841 she made five voyages transporting convicts to Australia, three to Hobart and two to Sydney. She became a transport and suffered a maritime incident in 1844. She was last listed in 1847.
James Sibbald was launched at Bombay in 1803. She was a "country ship", a British vessel that traded only east of the Cape of Good Hope. A French privateer captured her in late 1804, but she quickly returned to British ownership in Bombay in a process that is currently obscure. She made several voyages for the British East India Company (EIC).